Chapter 172
CEO's Office.
As soon as Nora entered the office, she noticed a cup of hot milk on the desk.
"David, is this for me?" Nora asked in surprise.
David nodded.
Nora smiled and said thank you.
"Don't mention it. I lost the bet, so I'm working under you for three months." David waved his hand, not mentioning at all that this was Michael's arrangement.
He did the work, so naturally he should take the credit.
"You don't need to take this seriously." Nora quickly waved her hand and said softly, "Mr. Smith will forget about it in a few days."
"I'm not deaf." Michael, sitting at his desk, tapped the table.
Nora giggled quietly, took a sip of the milk—it was sweet, like sugar had been added, but just a little bit, not too much, just right.
"Mr. Smith asked me to buy lightly sweetened milk, said you might like it." Under Michael's dark stare, David finally admitted that Michael had bought the milk.
Nora felt a bit flattered. She glanced at Michael and said softly, "Thank you."
"I'm going to a meeting. Upload the desert project content to my computer, encrypted files." Michael reminded her.
Nora paused. Michael really trusted her, but wasn't this something a secretary should do?
Michael still hadn't made a move against Isaac, but was slowly cutting him out.
Nora understood clearly that when she could temporarily take over Isaac's work, Michael would make his move against him.
So far, Isaac must have noticed something too.
She needed to be careful of this person as well.
"Mr. Smith." Nora sat in front of Michael's computer desk, looking at the powered-on computer.
Michael had just reached the door when he turned back, "What's wrong?"
"The computer..." Nora wasn't very confident.
When she went to prison, computer systems hadn't been upgraded this fast, but in prison they had to learn computer repair. Nora had always been smart and picked up computer programs and applications quickly.
Even though she wasn't a professional, one of Nora's fellow inmates who had bullied her was a hacker who had been imprisoned for illegally breaking into a financial system and causing huge company losses.
That person had initially joined others in bullying Nora, but later Nora had spoken up for her, so afterwards she treated Nora pretty well and taught her quite a bit.
"Don't know how to use it?" Michael thought Nora didn't know how to use his computer and came back to teach her.
"No." Nora shook her head, pulled up the task manager, and skillfully checked for suspicious processes.
Michael stood beside Nora and smiled in surprise.
"Mr. Smith, this..." Nora pointed at a process with a strange name, "Have you opened any suspicious programs?"
Michael's computer might have been illegally hacked.
Michael's face darkened. He looked at David, "Call Marcus to come over."
Marcus was a hacking expert.
Nora opened the system log and sure enough found login information that wasn't from Michael himself, along with other access records.
"Mr. Smith, we need to quickly check if any important files are missing." Nora was a bit panicked, "We should call the police."
"No rush, let's play along with them." Michael checked the time, "David, go notify them to cancel the meeting and reschedule for this afternoon. Say I need to finalize the desert project timeline this morning."
David nodded.
Clearly, Michael had already guessed who it was.
"Enter the project proposal." Michael had Nora input the final draft of the proposal into the computer.
Nora was a bit scared, "Mr. Smith, this is too dangerous."
"It's fine, we have a backup plan." Michael rubbed Nora's head.
Her sharp alertness made his heart ache.
If she had been a pampered rich girl all along, how could she be so alert and vigilant?
Michael knew that Nora had always maintained vigilance toward everyone and everything, never truly opening her heart.
Nora bit her lip, her ears turning red as she carefully entered the file.
Marcus arrived at the company in twenty minutes, disguised as a delivery person, and came to the office.
"When did you hire such a beautiful assistant?" Marcus put the takeout aside and casually bumped Michael.
"Be serious, don't scare her." Michael frowned, warning Marcus.
Nora looked at Marcus nervously, instinctively keeping her distance—he seemed a bit strange.
Marcus caught on—this was Michael's precious hidden treasure, "Hello Mrs. Smith, I'm Marcus."
Nora stammered, "What?"
Wasn't her relationship with Michael supposed to be kept secret?
"I told you not to scare her." Michael frowned in displeasure.
Marcus nodded, "Figured out who it is?"
"The most important thing recently is the desert project. Besides James, there's no one else." Michael's voice was low.
"Alright, then let's create something he'd be interested in, make a new file." Marcus raised an eyebrow, plugging his USB drive into the computer, "If we want to play the long game, we need to hack into his computer without him knowing."
"How would I know what he's interested in?" Michael frowned, somewhat irritated.
"Just put my name on the file..." Nora stammered, glancing at Michael somewhat guiltily, "Nora."
Marcus paused, not understanding.
Marcus turned back to see Michael's face had already darkened.
Frighteningly dark.
"I'll do it." Nora moved away from Marcus, typed "Nora" on the keyboard, edited the file name, and uploaded an ID photo.
Marcus looked back at Michael again.
Seeing Michael didn't object, he asked quietly, "Will this work?"
Nora nodded firmly, "It will work."
She understood James. Seeing a file about her on Michael's computer, James would definitely open it.
Sure enough.
Just as they finished editing the file, it was downloaded on the other end.
The file contained a virus.
It could hack into the other person's computer.
"Nice." Marcus slapped the table, "We did it."
Marcus excitedly turned to look at Michael, hoping for some praise, but unexpectedly Michael's face looked even worse.
"What are you smiling about? Keep a close eye on him." Michael snapped with a dark expression.
Marcus looked confused, glancing between Michael and David.
"Mr. Smith's emotions haven't been very stable lately. You'll get used to it, get used to it." David muttered quietly.
Nora kept her head down, not daring to speak.
"Come out with me." Michael, with his dark expression, told Nora to follow him out.
David was a bit worried. With Michael looking like he could eat someone, calling Nora out—was he going to scold her?
"Mr. Smith, this definitely isn't Nora's fault. Nora would never do something like this. Should we investigate more?" David thought Michael suspected Nora of leaking information and planting a virus on his computer, creating an opportunity for the hacker.
"Get lost." Michael couldn't be bothered with David. He was very irritable right now.
"Michael! Quick, James opened an encrypted file."
Just as Michael was about to take Nora to a private room for a good 'lesson,' he heard Marcus shout.
"What's so interesting about James's encrypted files?" Michael scanned the computer screen with a dark expression.
It didn't matter when he didn't look, but once he did, Michael's face became even darker.
He wanted to kill someone.